MUSKEGON, MI – Reed Hrynewich isn’t trying to treat it that he’s playing on his home course in the Michigan Amateur.

He plans to go about his business and did so in the opening round, shooting a workmanlike even-par 72 to finish one stroke off the lead after Tuesday’s morning round at Muskegon Country Club.

Mark Foster of Davison and Justin Pahl from White Lake near Detroit were the mid-round leaders with 1-under 71 and Hrynewich was part of a group at 72.

The two other Muskegon players in the morning group, Brad VanDam and Caleb Johnson, shot 78 and 79, respectively.

The afternoon wave was in progress in the 102nd year for the state’s top amateur golf tournament, which included local players Kyle Kurant of Muskegon, Montague’s Joe Balaskovitz and Ludington’s Erik Sanford.

“I had no expectation of a number. Just go out and play one shot at a time,” Hrynewich said. “I’m just any other guy in the field. You all start even par, so I don’t have to go out and shoot 70 every round.”

Hrynewich has honed his game at MCC over the years and the recent graduate of Mona Shores turned some heads with a 69 under extremely windy conditions in a high school district tournament last month.

But the 18-year-old doesn’t want to be overconfident, although he said he’s “in good position” after the first round.

“That’s the whole point I guess I’m trying to make. Even though it’s my home course and everything, I don’t have too much of an advantage over everyone,” he said. “You have to go out and play and hit the shots. Sometimes you can use it as a positive, OK, I’ve hit this shot before, I can hit this now.

“But other times, it’s just I’m the same as anyone else. Just because it’s your home course doesn’t mean you’re going to play pretty well. And they’ve got it set up pretty tough.”

Hrynewich started with eight consecutive pars before a bogey and later got it to 1-under with back-to-back birdies on par 5s on Nos. 13 and 14.

A three-putt bogey on No. 17 brought him back to even-par.

A steady breeze greeted the field of 156-players for the morning round. Those players will go off in the afternoon round Wednesday when the field will be cut to the low 64. The tournament format switches to match play Thursday.

Pahl, 17, is making his debut in the Michigan Amateur and his mother, Karen, served as his caddie for the first time.

“It was pretty steady. I hit a lot of fairways, hit a lot of greens, but it was my putting that really helped me out. I had 27 putts today, so I was really feeling the greens,” he said. “I mean the greens are what is going to get you here. There are some scary pin positions they can have, and there are some big breakers you have to play. And the downhill putts, you just have to touch them and hope they don’t roll too far past.”

Foster, a senior-to-be at Oakland University, made it to match play last year when he bowed out in his first match.

He said his only missed fairway came on No. 18 when his tee shot went into the fescue.

“You’ve got to hit the fairway. If you don’t hit the fairway, you are not doing anything else from there,” Foster said. “The greens are really fast if they are downhill. But if they are uphill, they are really slow so it is kind of like two different speeds out there.”

Putting derailed Johnson’s round. He had a four-putt on No. 17 and a number of three putts.

“My long putts I could not get close at all,” he said.

Johnson, a two-time winner of the McNiff tournament at MCC, was surprised by that. He had been spending a lot of time on his putting in preparation for the Amateur.